High-Aptitude Minds: The Neurological Roots of Genius

"...the top 2 percent scoring above 130 on an intelligence quotient (IQ) test..."

Must be an artifact of population growth - when I was a kid, I was only in the top 3%. But times change, and if that's really an indication of how smart one is, then the smart thing to do is to change with the times.

I believe the answer lies in the area of statistics and the lack of understanding of it by the author. The standard IQ test has been designed with a normal Gaussian distribution to have a mean of 100 with a standard deviation of 10. The IQ range from 90-110 includes 67% of test takers. The range from 80-120 includes 95% of all test takers, while 70-130 includes 97%. Based on that ~1-2% of test takers would have an IQ >130.

Could well be - mine was supposedly >145, so I'm supposed to be able to understand statistics. To a certain extent, I do...

I have always been fascinated by childhood geniuses. Some are smart at everything. Even get straight A's while quarterbacking the college football team. Others have an extreme genius in a very focused area, such as math or music. Sometimes they are considered below normal because they listen to "a different drummer." Even Einstein suffered from this as a child. Extreme cases are called "idiot savants." They are like the Rainman in the movie. My experience in the psychiatric area has made me a far stronger believer in genetic aspects than I was before I got into the field. Of course some believe that reincarnation is a big factor also.